Revise the plan again

Went to swimming class on Tuesday, and have been barely able to walk since.  I'm hoping this is the cortisone injection slowly wearing off, and have an appointment in early April for another. But this can't be considered functional.  The previous class had also taken four days before I was recovered enough  to take any sort of active role around here.  So, no more swimming until I get back from Cuba.

The power cooking is going well, but even so,  I have had to modify the method.  I am no longer firing up every stove and pot in the kitchen and spending two days doing nothing but cook.  Rather I am tackling one major project at a time and using the slow cookers to best advantage.  The first day we processed two BIG packages of lean hamburger making up 11 patties, and 36 meatballs.  The meatballs were browned off and then put in the slow cooker for 4 hours with French's Ragout sauce. Twelve meals in the freezer. Yesterday a big package of 13 chicken thighs were browned off and put in the slow cooker with a package of French's Mushroom gravy mix and two cans of cream of mushroom soup along with a can of water.  I also made a wild rice and sausage casserole, ate one meal and put another in the freezer.  My plan for this weekend was to make a BIG batch of tomato meat sauce and freeze 4 lasagnes and four meals of spaghetti sauce, but after doing grocery shopping today, we decided to spend the weekend doing the rest of the preparation for the trip, and power cook when we get home.

I read your post Cathy.  Does receiving your "gift" mean that you are any closer to working for the new employer?  How is the treatment for your insomnia working?  My heart was in my mouth reading of your trips through the snow drifts.  But then, even  once you are retired, you have to venture out at some point, although you will have more choice about when you do it.

My "first born" is 45 years old today.  If I'm honest, I can't even claim to be a child bride.  Did I tell you that Jeremy is now driving?  David arranged this morning to have a wheelchair for me to navigate the airport, going and coming.  I don't think I'm entirely looking forward to my birthday this year.  Looking in the mirror, I can't even lie to myself, anymore. Maybe tonight is a night to enjoy a glass of wine.

When? Oh when will it all end?

Today is much warmer.... only -23, with wind and snow showers.  I don't know where we will put all the snow in the yard.  Rodney has cleared us paths a couple of times, but we know have hills you could slide down in our yard.  At least we can still get in and out.  Although Wednesday was a challenge.  I came home at lunch to pick up Jim and the ground drift across the highway had made the road disappear.  Good thing I was familiar with it and knew where I was.  From the highway to the lane was like skiing moguls. One hard drift after another. When we went back to town, you couldn't find the trail I made coming in.  The wind and snow had covered it completely.  I emailed the people in Whitemud and told them that if the roads were like that after work.  I wasn't coming to rehearsal.  They must have taken it to heart, 'cause rehearsal was cancelled.  The wind had died down enough to see the highway, but the road to our land was now one long, deep drift.  -34 with -43 windchill... there was no way I would have headed out again.  I am taking one of my remaining vacation days today.   I have nothing planned, but there were so many things wrong with the work this week that by yesterday my brain was hurting.  I got some semi-good news.  I had taken 4 days VRW (voluntary reduced workweek..... they deduct your pay from your cheque all year to make up the four day)  Anyway, it seems through their error they had been deducting for 5 days.  Since it was their error, and not mine, they are going to repay me the money.  I could have taken the day, but this is like found money.!  Yesterday we had an all staff meeting at work.  At the end of it each employee was presented with a gift.  It was a picture.  It had our name (Cathy) and where we worked and then phrases about us.  All written in different directions.  Mine had things like .... Actress, Performing arts, Sense of humour, dedicated, Cat Spit Holler, (our home)  Rickards Red Ale (my favourite) etc etc etc.   They have been gathering information from us about our co-workers for months, but we didn't why.  It even came with a thank you from the goverment for over 15 years of excellent service. (as Elizabeth said,  15 years of excellent service... the rest of the time was mediocre.....Her placque said "wild sense of humour" and "bad puns")  Even Sandy got one and she has only been casual for 2 months.  I don't know if I mentioned that we have ordered 3 new windows.  The cost is added to our hydro bill for the next 5 years.  You can also buy a gas furnace the same way, but not an electric one...we have no access to gas here.  Anyway, the kitchen, our bedroom and the big living room will be replaced.  That will leave only one original window upstairs.  It is in the bedroom that Kik had and it is still in very good shape.  I am planning on doing nothing today but putter.  I need the down time.  Enjoy your trip Pati.  I will wrap up in a blankie and think about you.

Birds

Yesterday I separated the two birds into two separate cages. I think I told you that the little blue bird was acting erratic and that the big yellow bird seemed to be assaulting it?  Also Harry thought they were too cold in the front room so they have been moved to the bathroom with the heat a bit warmer. Overnight the blue bird seems to have relayed a bit - not to say it isn't still doomed but there may be hope? They are side by side to provide company which budgies need but separate so the yellow bird doesn't annoy the blue bird. So that is the current situation in my house - there are now two cages in the bathroom and I have to keep the door closed so the cats do not enter - the bathroom is usually their own special place so their noses are out of joint now ! Cleanup still continues here with more stuff moved to the storage shed and more stuff boxed up to take to the Auction house in Midland next Tuesday I think. I have found more boxes of scraps of cotton fabric and so very excited to keep these around and when time allows to start making the scrapy type quilts blocks I have viewed on The Quilt Show.  Last evening I watched Show #1307 with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tim making Scrap Quilts blocks - she has a book out called Scrap Quilts. It was a show from last year but still fed into my excitement from watching Victoria Findlay Wolfe the previous week. So today more work inside - the temperatures are very cold and windy with a touch of snow last night but perhaps more to come today and tonight? My friend Sue wrote an email reminding me of our tentative visit date in the Spring for luncheon with three other girls now. Wow, the numbers are increasing so my little group of contacts / friends may also be increasing? These are all folks I worked with in Home Care and all now retired. What a relief for all of us -Sue told me of the current CCAC (name for Home Care now Community Care Access Centre) "walking" a worker out the door last week not even allowing him to take his personal items with him at the time. He worked there for 18 years ( and with all of us folks) and well liked and respected but there is NO respect anymore from the big shots running the CCACs. Stirred my anxiety a bit with what happened with me at VON almost 5 years ago now - time I let go right? Anyway, have a great day and Take care

Your biggest hurdle jumped...

It seems to me always that it is the decision making that is the worst part of any change. Once you have come to that decision, the road to follow is generally easier to traverse. I hope it is this way for you Pati as I know only too well what you have accomplished over the last few days to reach your decision. Now it is the wait - how long to wait for surgery, how long to continue with current aquatic exercises, etc etc  I always admired how you "power cooked" and how organized it seemed to be - I could never do it, but wished I could. It is usually always pick up meals around here and sometimes it makes me crazy. We went to North Bay today so got that over with for this week. Mike returned from his Snowmobile Course in Petawawa late last night so we were over to visit and have a coffee today. He was on the trails day and night to Supervise the troops and they apparently put on over 1200 kms of travel with a few mishaps to deal with. This week he is assigned to travel to Ottawa one day, and then to Sudbury the next. He says as long as they pay him, he'll do what is necessary!
So here we are starting another week and hoping you folks are keeping busy and well? Take care

DEcisions made

Sorry to have been among the missing for the past few days.  Neither of us has been happy about the way our days have been going lately, but since my functional level is so erratic, weren't sure how to deal with it. So, a lot of soul searching, and revising priorities.

I have realized that I can't continue to attend swimming class three days a week.  Those days are pretty well lost to me, and I don't get the recovery time I appear to need right now.  So it will  be three days one week, and two the following week, and if there is a holiday, so be it.  This won't be as much activity as they recommend, but I was experiencing so much "downtime" trying to do more, that I think it evens out in the long run.

I have arranged to have my name on the list for knee replacement surgery, as of today.  This will probably mean a loss of range, but hopefully, will also mean a significant reduction in pain and an associated increase in functional level.  Dealing with the pain is just sucking my energy, and David is taking over more and more of the responsibility for our life.  Yes, every aspect of our life.

We will have to train ourselves to more in the way of planning for just about everything.  That will mean going back to our former planned "power cooking", and revising the way we use our freezers.

I don't expect this to be easy, or quick.  I think we will be dealing with this for the next couple of years, given the surgery waiting list.

 Yesterday I had my haircut.  I go to a small "drop in" salon nearby.  They have only recently started opening on Sunday.  There are a couple of women there who do a decent job with my hair, but neither of them were available.  One of the others did it for me last time, and never again, so there was one choice.  She was short, stout, in a skin tight miniskirt, with multiple piercings, tattoos and a bright blue Mowhawk.  Appearance sure didn't mean anything regarding her ability though.  A very nice cut, just swings into place and she didn't use any sort of product--just good cutting skill.  It still looks good this morning.  So one more thing off the list for Holguin.

Hi from here

Saturday morning - Harry has gone to the Flea Market in Sprucedale and I am trying to make some order out of chaos here and not having much luck haha.  Struggles with recent weather of mild temps, rain, freezing rain, wind and snow squalls - all in one day! And then last night lots of snow.  What a trial we are all going through this winter - we should all get our wings soon eh? Harry wanted to get the small greenhouse started so yesterday I taped the hole, and tried to repair the door that was torn off its hinges. It is more or less ready I think to get the second heater up and running in there with a few more little things to do before that can happen. The big greenhouse is as full as it can be right now so the little one is to take the overflow and then get full itself in the next days and weeks to come. Apparently next week the night lows may go as low as minus 27 degrees so I am just a little concerned. In meantime I go with the flow and enjoy what I can of the Olympics - will be over tomorrow and hoping I can have my laptop up and running to watch closing ceremonies. Will likely have to take another trip to Midland next week as well as the current auction on line ends Sunday night and Harry has a few items in that as well as bidding on a few items. I phoned our old friend in Coldwater and will plan to visit with her briefly on our way through.  Anyway, hoping all is well with you folks - enjoy weekend Take care.

Milder here too--sloppy in fact--+

A very rough weekend, but I was feeling a little better today, so ventured out to my swimming class.  David has decided that he wants a dual power razor so drove me, planning to shop while I was in class.  A very thorough class, but I made it.  Then David picked me up and told me I had to go to see the things he had selected during his shopping.

He had decided to get a couple of new suitcases, since none of ours were acceptable to the airlines.  Thank Goodness what he had found was on sale. Those suckers aren't cheap! At the same time we picked up a very nice, special, light-weight purse to use.  I think it will be much better than the huge and heavy one I 'm currently using.  The old one suits me for now as I can get an awful lot of stuff into it, but it is so big that I would have to declare it as my carry-on for flying.  After this shopping trip, I was in no shape for the grocery shopping I had hoped to do after swimming, so we bought the bare essentials and I came home and to bed for an hour. This evening I watched that Quilt show that you mentioned Beth.  some neat ideas there, but before you can do that type of piecing, you have to have a barrel of scraps.  I have a few here, should I send them up on the bus? Maybe not, as all I seem capable of these days is the random sewing of scraps.

Since all of this shopping is leaving me so tired and sore, I'm not getting into the studio much.  I spent a bit of time during the holiday Monday down there, but was tired and nothing would go right.  The holiday here is Louis Riel Day.  He is now referred to as a "Founding Father" of Manitoba.  Gosh, when we went to school we were told he was a traitor and hung for it!  

Cathy, you talk about how our lives are so exciting, compared to yours.  I notice you have a significant birthday next month.  It isn't too soon to start thinking about how you want to spend your days, when you no longer have to go to work. I went for a bit of retirement counselling through the EAP through work and felt that I gained quite a bit from it.  Since you are still with the Provincial government, something similar might be available to you.  There really is a lot more to think about than you might be aware of.